The invention relates to a method and a device for aligning and storing moldings having a tubular perforation, particularly coil formers, in a given order.
Coil formers for transformers are usually supplied by a molding machine, in which they have been molded, without any order. For further processing, for example for driving-in connection pins or winding with wire coils, they must be aligned beforehand in a given order. This alignment generally takes place by means of so-called vibration feeders. These vibration feeders consist of voluminous funnel-shaped pots, at whose wall a transport track which extends helically downwards and on which mechanical baffles are arranged is provided. These mechanical baffles are adjusted so that all the moldings which are not located in the correct direction on the transport track are thrown out or--as far as this is possible--are brought by these very baffles into the desired position, or, more accurately defined, into the desired orientation.
For each given type of a molding or component, a specific vibration feeder is generally required. Therefore, for each molding an individual vibration feeder or at least a pot support must be kept in stock, which according to need is placed on an alignment device before a handling station. Large moldings also result in large vibration feeder pots. Therefore, a very large amount of storage space is required to keep in stock the individual vibration feeder pots.